


If These Wings Could Fly

by Niishio



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Character Death, College, High School, I'll add more - Freeform, Long Distance Relationships, M/M, Slice of Life, Yaoi, characters eventually, ereri
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-30
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-10 15:19:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1161249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niishio/pseuds/Niishio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU where Eren is in his junior year of high school wishing to get out into the world and away from the town he feels trapped in. His class takes a school trip out of town and there he meets Levi, a college student who knows exactly how to live freely. Levi shows Eren what it means to live while on this trip and ends up forming a long distance relationship with him. However, long distance relationships don't always go down the right path.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> I have been itching to write another fic that was more on the serious-ish side I guess. I recently reminisced about my high school life and how we all didn’t know who the hell we wanted to be or what for that matter. I also needed some Ereri and so this has been written. I am in no way an avid writer since I have not really written anything in such a long time…so do forgive me for the simplicity of my writing. I’m sure the more I write fics, the more I’ll improve as I remember all the stuff I probably forgot back in high school LOL.
> 
> Anyway, I just want to note a few things before you start reading. Eren is 16 and is a junior (11th grade) in high school. Levi is 21 in college for his 2nd year of college. Although I’ve greatly decreased Levi’s age, I will obviously stick to his personality and the same goes for Eren but as I kind of know where I want this story to go, there will be a lot of character development. More for Eren than Levi though but we’ll see yes? Also, I am still deciding if I want to write in some smut along the way but I’ll leave it up to you to decide. Ok, I am done, I hope you enjoy this little AU! Comment/kudos are always welcome.

I never thought anything of high school. High school was just a place where we all had to sit for hours listening to lectures that weren’t worth listening to, or in my case, wasn’t interesting enough to pay attention to. I had friends in school, but only few I was really close with like Armin, whom I’ve known since I was a kid and Mikasa whose parents died in an accident and was adopted by my parents making her technically a sister to me. I didn’t care for relationships like any other high school student nor did I even pay attention to the countless girls who tried to get with me. All I wanted was to graduate and get out of here, do something worth living for.

This small little town, Shinganshina, just didn’t cut it for me. This town that I’ve spent my whole life in made me feel like I was trapped behind walls I couldn’t climb out of. A place that didn’t have enough wonders to grab hold on to, to broaden my horizons you can say. All I wanted was an adventure, an experience that would change my life. I didn’t care in what way, I’m just so tired of being so sheltered, of seeing the same people on every worn out street, of eating the same food at the little outlet by the market square downtown and I’m tired of only knowing that there were places out there that were much better than here.

I was tired of everything…. until I met him. He was the light at the end of the tunnel, the one who showed me what it meant to live, to really live. Back then, I thought he was just a person who I would be close friends with or at least tried to be, what with his shitty attitude he gave off, I almost brushed him aside entirely but all that you see of him on the outside, wasn’t what he really was in the inside. He was more than just a short irritable looking guy, inside, he was an intellectual human being who knew what he wanted in life and he was caring despite, again, his outer appearance. It just took some getting used to.

I could go on about how much I admired him, but let me backtrack to the very beginning, to the day I started my junior year of high school. From there was when my story first began.

Starting my first day of junior year in high school, I already knew what a shitty day I was going to have when I failed to set my phone’s alarm last night and ended up oversleeping until Mikasa came into my room to wake me up.

“Eren! It’s already 7:00. Hurry up and get out of bed or we’re going to be late.”

Mikasa said to me as she leaned up against my door crossing her arms. Rubbing my eyes of sleep, I slowly pull the covers off as I sit up in bed. I’ve packed all my school supplies the night before so all I really need to do now is to get dressed.

“Ok, I’m up already. I’ll be down in a minute Mikasa.” Watching me walk over to my dresser and pulling out clothes, Mikasa nods and turns away to walk back downstairs. Since today is the first day, I figured I should wear something nice as first impressions on the first day of school are important, right? So I take out a simple black and white button down plaid collared shirt and a pair of my favorite denim jeans. I undress out of my night clothes and put on my outfit while making my way to the bathroom. Looking into the mirror and seeing my messy brown hair, I pick up my small black comb from the counter and attempted to try and tame the beast on my head. It was a total failure so I just left it as it is and went on to brushing my teeth. Finally making my way downstairs, I smell the aroma of toasted bread and orange juice and noticed Mikasa and my mom sitting at the table eating breakfast.

“Good morning sweetie. Are you ready for your first day as an 11th grader?”

My mom says to me as she gets up to fix me a plate of toast adding some strawberry jam knowing that was how I liked it. Sitting down next to Mikasa, I take a sip of my orange juice and look over to my mom, “As ready as I’ll ever be I guess.” I say to her.

“We only have one class this year and it’s P.E.” Mikasa says to me while looking over her schedule.

When Mikasa’s parents died in an accident, she had no other relatives to take her in and since my dad was very close friends with her parents, he decided to take her in and raise her along with me. I liked her; she was a very caring person although she can be overly protective towards me when it comes to others. Mikasa always wore my red scarf that I gave her the first time she came to stay with us. It was a cold winter day and seeing her cry over her parent’s death shivering on the snow covered steps in front of her house made me want to hug and keep her warm and so I gave her my scarf. Surprisingly, she can pull off any outfit while wearing it so I’m not bothered by it. Mikasa always had her hair long and her black silky hair was captivating. She was very pretty and as a brother, I, of course get a little protective when I see guys hit on her, yet she always carried herself in a way that showed she wasn’t easy to fool or take advantage of so in all honesty, she can be scary as hell when she’s angry. She and I took martial arts when we were  kids up until my last year of middle school so we both knew how to defend ourselves and embarrassingly enough, Mikasa made it to black belt while I didn’t. She was definitely more physically talented than I was so I knew she’d be the star student in P.E.

“Armin and I are in 6 classes this year. I think all three of us are in the same P.E. class too.” I say to her as I finished eating the last of my breakfast.

Armin is my best friend. He may look like a timid kind of person with his short blond hair and big blue eyes, but he is one of the most intelligent people I know. So despite how timid he can be, he makes up with his brightness. I don’t know how many times he’s saved me during exam week when I couldn’t understand a shitload of what I needed to study. Armin lived with his grandfather just down the street from me so we made it a point to always meet up in the morning to walk to school.

“At least we are all in at least one class together. It’ll be fun.” Mikasa says picking up her backpack from the back of her chair and waiting for me to do the same. “Armin is probably on his way over so we should wait outside now.”

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, my dad is a doctor so he is never really around as much because of how extensive his work can be. I usually only see him during dinner sometimes and although we really never talk, he’s still alright. Anyway, Mikasa and I wave goodbye to our mother and head outside to wait for Armin. The weather still has a little bit of that summer warmth and the sun, shining bright as ever grazed its warmth on my face. Seeing Armin walking up the street, I wave over to him and make my way down the street as well.

“Eren! Mikasa! How are you guys? Ready for another year of school? We’re juniors now! How awesome is that?” Armin says as he finally caught up to us, his arm holding onto one of his backpack’s strap. “We’re okay, but no I’m not ready for another year of being in school, I’m literally still in my summer state of mind. Being a junior, though is gonna be fun since we get to go on that trip out of town right?”

 During 11th grade, the school takes the students out on a trip to a place outside our town. Every year it’s a different location so I can’t really say for sure where it is we’re going. Last year, I think the classes went to the UK? Yeah, I think they went there. I have waited forever for this trip because it’ll be the one time I’m out of this hellhole of a town.

“Yeah! I can’t wait to go somewhere other than this place. I wonder where they’ll take us this year.” Armin says while looking down at his schedule. I haven’t really looked at my schedule as much and I probably should since I don’t even remember what class I have first. The rest of the walk contained of nothing but talking about how the school year will be and who we think we’ll have in our classes. Once we reached school, which is named, are you ready for it? Shinganshina High. Oh the excitement right? Yeah no, literally every damn store here has some form of the town’s name. This is how boring this place really is.

Walking inside the kind of worn out building (because it’s the only high school here so it’s been here for ages), I look down at my paper to see where my first class was, **Rm. 0245 – History**. I actually like history so knowing that it’s the first class of the day, I wasn’t bothered by it and Armin was in this class with me so even better. Armin and I both said our goodbyes to Mikasa and made plans to meet up again during lunch. As we made our way upstairs to the second floor to our class, my mood immediately dropped when I heard a familiar voice calling from behind me.

“Hey Eren, guess we’re in a class together. Great, I gotta put up with you first thing in the morning” _Jean_. I’ve known Jean since middle school and we never really got along. He was obnoxiously annoying and had a face that reminded me of a horse, therefore giving him the nickname, horseface.

 “What the hell? Why are you in my class horseface? Go back to the barn you came from.” I retort back. Turning back around to enter the classroom, a hand grabs onto my shoulder and pulls me back and I see his stupid face again.

“Quit calling me horseface Jaeger!” Jean says, his voice going louder so that everyone could hear. I grab his hand off my shoulder and flipped him on his back. Taking martial arts can come in handy when you’ve got a shitty horseface on your back. Landing on the ground with a thud, I finally noticed the plethora of eyes all around us and realize every student in that hallway stopped and watched this uneventful scene happen. _Shit. There goes my first impression_.

 “Nice job Eren, already causing damage on the first fucking day of school” Jean said sitting up and rubbing his head that hit the ground pretty hard, his face scowling at me and then looking at all the wondering faces that were watching us. “Good luck with making new friends this year; I think you probably scared the whole population with your horrific face. Clenching my fist in an attempt to control my anger, I feel a gentle hand touch my tense shoulder and see Armin’s worried yet comforting face.

 “Eren, just forget about Jean ok? Let’s just get inside and get ready for class to start.” Listening to my best friend, I relax and turn back and walked into the classroom. Every student in that classroom looked at me like I was some sort of monster and chose the furthest seats away from me except for Armin and a few other people who knew me last year. _Yeah, so much for my first fuckin impression of the year._


	2. Lunch Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren continues with the rest of his day with a shitty mood until lunch break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, so here is the second chapter and I promise things will pick up after the third chapter. I’ll be doing a time lapse because I don’t think we want a bunch of chapters on every day of Eren’s high school life. Nope just the fun stuff right? Lol ok.   
> Anyway, I don’t know about you but lunch was always my favorite in school especially on the first few days of school. Enjoy and again, comments/kudos is always appreciated.  
> Btw, I updated the first chapter but nothing too dramatic. I just fixed a few grammatical errors since I didn’t proofread it the first time around. Also forgive me if the format was weird, I’m still figuring out this site XD

After that incident with Jean, I didn’t have any drive to continue for the rest of the day. The first half of my classes went by incredibly slow and despite Armin’s reassurance that I’d make new friends soon, I was still dreading the fact that people are thinking I was some douchebag guy. I spent the last hour of my English class, the class before lunch, doodling in my notebook. My teacher, Mrs. Conrad, turned out to be a nice teacher who made learning English interesting, but my mind just couldn’t concentrate on what she was talking about. I may like her, but she is the only teacher today who is actually getting into lessons while my previous teachers only spoke about the syllabus and what we’ll be doing this year.

Hearing the bell that set us free, I packed my notebook and pencils and made my way out the door. I was excited to finally meet up with Mikasa and Armin again for lunch. Lunch. Lunch was my favorite thing about school. The food here is actually decent and we have the freedom to eat around the school yard instead of the cafeteria, which I especially liked because we have this fountain in the back of the school that was directly across our cafeteria and it was my favorite spot to hang out at.

“Eren! Over here!” Armin waves me over to where the line of food is. I quickly get behind him and was told that Mikasa has already gotten her food and is saving a spot by the fountain. Armin bought himself a slice of pizza and a can of Sprite while I bought a cheeseburger with fries on the side along with a can of Root Beer. Walking out the side doors of the cafeteria that leads into the hallway towards the fountain, a tall guy with a blond guy were sitting on one of the benches in the hallway acknowledging us. These two guys were Bertholdt and Reiner. Bertholdt was the tall brunette while Reiner was the blond whose body was so built, I bet he could take out a lot of guys with ease.

“Hey guys, whatsup?” Bertholdt says.

“We’re good. We’re on our way to the fountain to meet up with Mikasa. How about you guys? What classes do you have after this?” I say nibbling on a fry from my plate.

“We’re good though we have Shadis for math this year and he’s already putting people on the “list”. We have English, Woodshop, Government, and then P.E.”

The “list” was a list of people who got on Shadis’ bad side and therefore were the ones he watched the most and it was annoying when he purposely held you after class just because.

“Sweet! We have P.E. together! Eren and Mikasa are with us too.” Armin says grinning widely at the knowledge that we have more friends in the same class. Looking over at Reiner, I can see he had been occupied with something else.

“Who are you looking for?” Coming out of his distraction, Reiner looks back at us and tried to play it cool. “No one. Why?” “Well you haven’t joined the conversation and you were looking around as if you were looking for someone.” I answered eating another one of my fries.

“He’s probably looking for Christa again” says Bertholdt elbowing Reiner in the arm and smiling. That makes sense since he’s had a crush on that girl since Freshman year. Christa is this really small girl with blond hair who hung around this other girl named Ymir. Sometimes I wonder if those two girls are a couple but for the sake of Reiner’s feelings, I never say anything so as not to crush his hopes even though I think he probably knows it himself.

Realizing how long we’ve been standing here, I motion Armin to go so we tell the guys that we’d see them in P.E. and make our way to the fountain. Mikasa is sitting down on a part of the fountain with her bag sprawled out in a space that would be ours. She waves us over and Armin and I walk over to her and take our seats. Looking up at the water flowing down from the angelic looking statue, I start to admire the statue and how the water flows from her hair.

“Hey guys, do you ever wonder about the history of this lady from the statue?” I say as I put down my plate of food.

“You mean about the Queen of Sina and how back then they fought against titans? Yeah I never really believed it whenever they mention it in History. I mean, titans? Really? As if something like that could exist.” Of course, the ever so intelligent Armin would try to prove things wrong. I personally think it was true. I mean, how cool would it be to know that there these giant beings called titans and that people fought against them to save humanity. Though I did hear that thousands and thousands of people died fighting, I still think I’d be a pretty bad ass soldier.

“Why are you asking Eren?” says Mikasa looking at me with curiosity. “Idk, I just always thought the story about the soldiers winning against the titans and creating a whole new world after is interesting.” “I really don’t think titans were real Eren. I’m sure the historians just added that in there as time went on. No one really knew what happened because every artifact they found were too damaged or aged to read.”

Realizing there was no arguing with Armin and actually winning, I let the topic drop and continued eating my burger.

The fountain area is such a great place to spend your lunch hour and I wasn’t the only one who thought the same. Groups of people were sitting on the grass in front of us next to a giant tree that overlooked the back of the school. In that group were Ymir and Christa who were sitting next to each other of course and eating their boxed lunch. They were busy chatting and eating and it was a nice sight to see. Over on the right side, near the hallway we were in, a couple of people were leaning against the railing talking about their summer. Yeah lunch is definitely the highlight of my day.

After lunch, the rest of my classes went by pretty quickly and the last class of the day rolled around. I didn’t bother bringing any gym clothes because I figured we would only go over the syllabus and do introductions. Armin and Mikasa were already sitting on the bleachers in the gym so I made my way over to them when someone bumped passed me. Sneering back, I realized it was Jean who bumped into me and my expression dropped. This class is going to suck ass with him in it. Jean stopped in front of Mikasa and I quickly walked over to them and shoved him aside. “She’s not interested in a guy who looks like a horse.” Glaring back at me, Jean shoves me back and retorted with “I wasn’t going to ask her out asshole. I was just asking how her summer went” Yeah sure he was. I knew Jean had a crush on her.

Hearing his name being called, Jean looked back and it was a guy with freckles walking towards him. Marco was his name and I really like Marco. He was a genuine guy who was fun to talk and the fact that he and Jean were best friends surprised me because they are complete opposites.

“Hey guys. Looks like we’re in a class together haha” says Marco while resting his arm on Jean’s shoulder. “Don’t worry Eren, I’ll keep Jean in check so you lighten up ok?” It is true that whenever Jean was with Marco, he becomes more tolerable.

As other students walked into the gym, I recognize a lot of people from previous classes and I was quite happy that there weren’t many that I didn’t know. There were a few who I didn’t know and they took one look at me and whispered each other saying “Isn’t he the guy who beat up that other guy this morning? What a jerk.” Deciding to just try and prove to them that I’m not that kind of guy, I let their comments slide and went back to naming people I knew. There was Christa and Ymir, Bertholdt and Reiner, Connie, Sasha and Annie. Our teacher this year is Mr. Pixis and he was an overall cool guy or as cool as a p.e. teacher can get.

Like I thought, we didn’t do anything physical so the time went by quickly. Mr. Pixis let us out 20 minutes early so I pick up my backpack and walked out the gym with Mikasa and Armin. Earlier that morning, we decided to stop by our favorite café before heading home so instead of taking the same route we took in the morning. We made our way into town until the small building with the sign **World Café**. One of the reasons why I liked this café so much was because of the food they sell. They sold some foreign foods that were imported from around the world so it was nice to eat something different and God knows I need a hell of a lot of different in my life.

The café’s appearance was breathtaking in the inside. The interior walls, lined with framed pictures of different countries while the furniture were all contemporary. Their menu consisted of your usual coffee beverage choices along with the many varieties of food. I usually ordered a caramel Frappuccino when it’s warm out accompanied by one of those foreign foods.  We went up to the register and were met by the owner of café by the name of Petra. She was a very pretty woman with blond short hair and golden brown eyes. Sometimes, if the café wasn’t busy, she would tell me about the places she’s been to and stories of people she’s met. She always spoke of this particular guy she went to high school with who I’m guessing she’s very fond of.

“Hi guys. I haven’t seen you here in a while. How was everyone’s summer?” Petra says smiling at all three of us. I smiled back and told her we were good and that we were just having too much fun over summer break. After engaging in some small talk with her, we all made our orders and walked over to one of the empty tables by the corner near a window. I ordered my usual frappe and decided to try out the French crepe which turned out amazing. Petra knows how to make outstanding crepes from when she took a vacation in France with said guy.

Drinking up our refreshments, Armin decides to bring up Jean. “So Jean is in 3 classes of mine and you know, he really isn’t that bad a guy. He’s really cool and he said he’s going to try out for the soccer team this year.” Rolling my eyes and taking another bite of my crepe, I began to argue like I always do when Jean was brought up into a conversation.

“What are you talking about? He’s such an ass. Why are you always bringing him up now? You’ve been talking about him since freshman year when you had him in most of your classes. You can’t really think he’s a good guy.”

“He is Eren. I don’t know why you two can’t get along and I don’t understand why you always have to pick a fight with him. Like today, you didn’t have to be so mean when he was talking to Mikasa. He really wasn’t asking her out.” Backing him was Mikasa who turned to me with those concerned eyes which told me she was about to go into mother mode.

“He’s right Eren. You should try to get along with Jean this year. Armin told me what happened during first period. You promised me you’d control your anger better.” She laid a hand over mine and I pushed it off. I know what they are trying to say but it’s kind of had to get along with someone who starts everything. I sip the last of my frappe and got up to throw it away and then decided to buy my mom a pastry so I walked back to the counter.

“So you’ll be going on a school trip this year right?” says Petra while she put my pastry into a bag.

“Yeah but I don’t know where yet.”

“If you end up going to France, make sure to come to me so I can give you places to visit. You might also run into my friend over there.”

“Yeah okay sure. I’ll do that” I tell her smiling as I took the bag and told her goodbye. Armin and Mikasa were waiting for me by the door and turned back up the street away from the town and back onto our route home. The conversation with Petra had me thinking of where I want to go for the trip and France really didn’t sound so bad and I think it’ll be cool to meet one of Petra’s friends.

Mikasa and I waved goodbye to Armin and walked inside our house only to be greeted by my mom who was peeking in from the kitchen.

“How was your first day?”

“Horrible. But lunch was awesome."


	3. Spiked Out

Two weeks into school and so far, all were not bad. Classes were boring as usual, however, in Science, Mrs. Hanji managed to concoct some weird ass experiment that almost caught fire so the entire class got to leave early so she can clean up the mess. Armin had become to talk to Jean more frequently much to my distate, but I can’t tell Armin who to be friends with.

This morning during history class, I had my head resting on my arms on my desk trying to get in a few minutes of sleep before the bell rings when I heard Armin walk in talking to Jean about some small concert Jean saw during the weekend. Armin didn’t walk with Mikasa and I this morning because he said he had to get to school earlier than usual and now I’m guessing this was the reason. More quality time with the horseface. I watch the two walk over to Jean’s desk and Jean sits down while Armin leans against the desk across from his and the way he looks at Jean, with eyes that show a glimmer of vivacity, his smile wide as I’d ever seen it. It was as if he had some sort of a crush on him or something, but that can’t be true because who would like a guy like him?

“Seems like those two are getting along really well.” A voice rings out from in front of me. I pick my head up from the desk and see Marco standing in front of me.

“Yeah a little much if you ask me. I really don’t see how you can stand that guy Marco.” I rub the sleep from eyes and look back at the two chatting away and then back to Marco who wore a white polo with denim jeans.

Marco chuckled and smiled at me with such gentleness that I just can’t help feel so calm whenever I see him. He is just naturally happy and sometimes I wish I was like that.

“He really isn’t that bad. Yeah his personality can come off a little….obnoxious but he’s really a great guy once you get to know him. If anything, I think he gets more worked up when it comes to you.”

“Hmph” is all I say. He and I will never get along so I just don’t even try. It’s not like we’ll see each other after we graduate anyway. Just two more years and I can leave this hell hole.

The morning bell finally rings and students start taking their seats and lessons begin. I zone every class out until lunch. Again, Mikasa, Armin, and I meet at the fountain except this time we’re joined by Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie. Bertholdt had on a white polo with a black sweater over it along with khaki jeans. Reiner wore a simple grey shirt with a white hoodie and denim. Annie, who I find a little intimidating sometime because of how quiet she is, sported a white hoodie and some dark jeans.

“So guys, where do you think we’re going for the school trip in a few months” said Bertholdt after he took a bite of his slice of pizza. All of us looked at one another as we thought of where we wanted to go. As if we all thought, we ended up saying our destination in unison.

“London!”

“New York”

“I hope its Rome!”

“Anywhere”

“France!”

We all laughed after that and really, I don’t think it mattered to any of us where we are going because we’ll be out of this town. I bit into my hot dog and remembered what Petra said awhile back about France and her friends over there and I can’t forget all the pastries they had there which made me want to go the France even more. Mikasa saw the light in my eyes and said

“You really want to go to France don’t you? Is it because of all the stories Petra told us?”

“Stories? What kind of stories about France?” Bertholdt said.

Swallowing, I turned to the group and told them the stories that Petra told.

“In France, more specifically in Paris, there is the Eiffel Tower that looks amazing at night with all the lights that turn on. Petra also mentioned how the food there is delicious and that the streets are beautiful. She also mentioned that she had friends over there so I think it would be cool to meet up with them and have them take us around. I also think French is a pretty cool language.”

“I do agree that the food over there is good judging from the pastries Petra makes at the café. Armin said. Annie looked up from her plate of half eaten French fries with such boredom expression, I thought she was going to get up and leave but instead she turns to me and said

“And how will you meet these friends? France is a big place and since this is a school trip, we will have to be supervised and I doubt we will be able to wander off far enough.” Turning my head back to my empty plate, I realize that she is right. How will I find Petra’s friends, I wouldn’t even know how to get around a place I’ve never been to. I never really thought about the fact that I’ll be restricted even then. I always thought I’d just be able to wander off and see things I’ve never seen. It never dawned on me that I wouldn’t know my way around.

Before I could answer back, Annie got up from sitting on the edge of the fountain’s bench and walked over to the trashcan by the hallway and walked off. The warning bell sets off and the rest of us got up and threw our trash away and dispersed into the crowds walking to their next class.

P.E finally rolled around and today, Mr. Pixis decided to have us play volleyball. Volleyball was a sport Mikasa played and was exceptionally great at. I, on the other hand, have never played volleyball but after watching countless games Mikasa took part in, I figured I got the gist of it and thought it looked easy enough. Hit the ball across the net. Simple.

I was wrong.

I was put on the same team as Mikasa and Armin. We were on the right side of the net and we just rotated which meant I was next to serve. I quickly took the white ball into my hands and threw it up into the air. Watching and waiting for the ball to fall back down, I swiftly hit the ball with the palm of my hand and as the ball went flying from the impact, I smiled at the force with which I hit until I realize the ball hit the net. It literally went straight into the net. Hearing laughter from the other side, I noticed Jean was among them.

“Jaeger can’t even serve a ball. Pathetic. We’re gonna win for sure.” A confused look in my eyes wondering what I did wrong, I felt a hand on my shoulder and see Mikasa. She tried to tell me how to serve and honestly, I thought I was doing it right.

We rotated and I ended up in the middle at the front and as the ball flew to the other side, I can Jean jump up into the air and hit the ball over the net and trying to get revenge, I quickly got ready to hit the ball back up when I missed the ball entirely and was struck in the face. Falling backwards onto the ground with a thud, I opened my eyes to confusion once again.

“What the hell am I doing wrong?” Armin helps me back up and Mr. Pixis made his way to me and said, “your stance is completely wrong and went you receive a spike, you are to put both your hands up and hit the ball back up across the net.” Mr. Pixis took a moment to teach me the proper techniques and for a moment, I finally knew what I was doing. I still sucked and my serves were still weak but I at least was able to hit the ball over the net. I spent the rest of the game admiring Mikasa. Her serves were so graceful and her spikes deadly.  Armin wasn’t bad either. I never thought Jean would be good at volleyball, but damn was he good and it killed seeing all the girls swoon over it.

Because of my bad play throughout half the game, we ended up losing and had to do suicides for the last 5 minutes of class. We ran back and forth across the gym until class was over. I was so glad to be done with this class. Normally, I like P.E. but today was just an embarrassment and it pissed me off watching Jean play well and me, horribly.

After class, Armin again, chose to hang out with Jean and Marco so Mikasa and I said our goodbyes and walked towards our favorite café. The air had become cooler so I zipped up my blue jacket and put my hands into my pocket.

“You did good for your first time playing Eren.” Mikasa said to me smiling.

“I really don’t need to hear that coming from someone who is a pro at it.” I grumbled to her. Reaching to the café, I open the door to let her in first and then was greeted by one of my favorite people, Petra.

“Hi guys! The usual?” She said already writing down our names on the cups. We both nodded in unison and walked over to an empty table and sat down. I glanced at the menu to see what new pastry she added and saw that there wasn’t any today. I rest my head on my hand and waited for our drinks while Mikasa took out some book of hers and started flipping to the last page she left off. Upon receiving our drinks, I decided to ask Petra more about her friends and where in France they lived.

“Umm, well they all live in Paris but I’m not really sure if Auruo and Erd still live there. I remember they were planning on moving elsewhere. I know for sure the other one is studying abroad in the U.S. and Levi is still attending college in Paris.” Sipping on my coffee, I take in what she said and was about to ask another question when I hear the door open cueing Petra to go back to the counter.

Looking up from her book, Mikasa says, “Eren, you shouldn’t get too worked up about going to France. We don’t even know for sure where they’re taking us.”

“I know that, but I just wanted to know.”

I know that we might not go there but I just wanted to know more about Petra’s friends. I don’t know why but I’m just attracted to people who have been to other places.

After we were done with our drinks, we said our goodbyes to Petra and made our way home. After getting home, I made my way to my room and dropped my backpack onto my messy floor and flopped on my bed. Reaching for my desk, I grab onto a travel guide book and laid back down on my bed and flipped to the chapter that said France.

_I can hope right?_

 

 


	4. Spring Semester

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First semester ends leading into the second semester. Location of the school trip is announced and Eren is overjoyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I am sorry that this chapter is a week late. My laptop had some issues causing me to be unable to type anything, but now its fixed hopefully for good. Anyway, I have been so excited to write this chapter because it’s the starting point of Eren’s adventure :D
> 
> Also, while this entire fic is in Eren’s POV, there will be times when I add in other POVs and such for certain parts of the story. I will of course, let you know who is being talked about so don’t worry about confusion.  
> If you haven’t already noticed, I try to update every Thursday so always check in on Thursdays for new chapters.
> 
> If you want, you can follow me on tumblr: http://niiishio.tumblr.com/  
> Feel free to talk to me there (:

 

First semester has finally ended and a new semester has begun. I spent my winter break with Mikasa and Armin as usual. On the last week before school started up again, we took a trip down to the local ice skating rink and met up with a few friends we made at school. Overall, it was a pretty relaxing break and I can’t say I’m sad that it had ended. On another note, it’s about time the school decided on where it is we will be going on our school trip.

I had been anticipating it since school began and I couldn’t sleep the day before the location is announced. I spent hours thinking of all the possible places we could visit and before I knew it, the morning sun had crept its way through my window. I got up from bed and grabbed a t-shirt from the drawer along with a pair of jeans. It was still cold outside so I took a mental note to pick up my thicker jacket before I leave for school.

Mikasa, as usual, was up before I was and was already downstairs eating breakfast; scrambled eggs and bacon. As I entered the kitchen, my mom placed my breakfast onto the table and greeted me.

“Good morning sweetie, did you sleep well?”

Yawning in response, my mom took that as an answer and giggled to herself as she went back to cleaning the countertops. I ate my breakfast in silence while my thoughts went back to the trip. It wasn’t like I would be disappointed if we end up going somewhere I didn’t want to visit, I just wanted to go anywhere, but going somewhere I thought was interesting would be even better. Reading the expression on my face, Mikasa put her plate away and walked over to my side of the table and put her hand on my shoulder and smiled, “Don’t worry Eren, I’m sure we’ll visit some place interesting.” 

Walking into first period, the students all sat down on their seats chatting away about their winter break. I sat down and tried to sneak in a nap before the bell rings. When the bell did ring, our teacher walked in with a stack of papers and announced that they were the handout for the school trip. I was beyond excited to finally know where we were going. As the papers were being passed back, I took my sheet and immediately looked over to the part where it displayed the location.

**_Location of school trip: Paris, France_ **

Without any thought, I jumped off my seat and well, just jumped for joy. Everyone in class started laughing until the teacher ordered me to sit back down and I honestly didn’t care if everyone now thought of me as some freak and I definitely didn’t care when I noticed Jean snickering at me. I don’t know how this happened but I thank whatever Gods are out there.

The rest of the day went by in a flash and as far as I can tell, nothing will ruin this good mood of mine. It has been decided that the date of the trip would be on March and that is just two months away and I tell myself that I can be patient. I really wanted to tell Petra about this so I decided to stop by the café after school to tell her the good news.

As much as I enjoyed having Armin and Mikasa come along with me to our favorite café, I wanted to go by myself this time because there were so many things I wanted to ask Petra and well, I didn’t really want them to be there. I told them that I wanted to go alone today and they agreed to let me go. We said our goodbyes and walked our separate ways.

It was quite cold out and so I put my hood on and burrowed my chilled hands into my pocket. When I got to the café, I was delighted to find that the place less packed than usual. I walked up to the counter and waved over to Petra who was occupied with making a customer’s coffee.

“You look awfully happy today” She greeted me with a smile already preparing my usual drink.

“Yeah! We found out where we’re going to the trip and guess what? It’s Paris!” I said grinning.

She handed me my drink and leaned over the counter so that we could talk. When it got too busy with customers, Petra agreed to talk after her shift which was in a few hours so I walked to an empty seat and sat there sipping on my hot drink. I decided to get some homework done while waiting and before I knew it, I hear a chair being pulled back and there Petra was with a hot drink of her own accompanied by some pastries.

“So, what else did you want to know about France?” She said nibbling on her croissant. Even though I was pretty sure I already knew most of what I needed to know about France, I kind of wanted to get to know more about her friends and I wasn’t sure how to bring it up without sounding so nosy. I took one last sip of my drink and decided to just go for it.

“I kind of wanted to know if there was a way to meet up with some of your friends over there. You know maybe have them show me around and stuff.” I said kind of nervously. I don’t know what it was about wanting to meet her friends, maybe it was the fact that they were someone new, or maybe it was the stories she had told me of them that fascinated me so much that I wanted to see them for real.

“Sure. Though I’m not really sure if Levi still has the same number, but I can contact him before you leave for your trip and tell him to look out for you. I do have to warn you though, Levi is…well not like your average person. He kind of keeps to himself, but I promise you once you get to know him, he’s a great guy.” I didn’t really understand what she meant about Levi not being your average person but I’m guessing he must be some quiet guy who doesn’t talk much. I don’t know so I continued to ask more about this Levi like how he looked like firstly.

“He is kinda short with black hair that is parted to the side and his hair is an undercut. Weird I know, but it really suits him. He has eyes that are intimidating and he is a real clean freak..” I can tell Petra really likes him from the way she talks about Levi and just her eyes always seem to sparkle whenever she says his name that I wonder if they had a thing going on in the past so I asked.

“Not to sound nosy or anything but did you two have a thing in the past?” She smiled at me awkwardly and chuckled,

“No we didn’t. I did confess to him once, but he rejected me saying that he didn’t feel that way about me. I wasn’t hurt or anything because we still remained close friends and that’s all I could ever want.” I can tell she was most likely disappointed about being rejected but decided not to pry into the subject any longer. I took the mental note of how Levi looked like for later use and told Petra that I should head home since it was getting late.

I said my goodbyes and told her I’d come visit her again before I leave for my trip. The walk home didn’t take long because of how fast I was walking due to how freaking cold it got afte I left the café. Some of the snow from last month still made its presence along the sidewalk reminding me just how cold it was. It was so cold that my thickest jacket proved useless and by the time I reached my doorstep, I could no longer feel half my body.

When I walked into the door, the warm heat from the heaters immediately greeted my body with warmth that I just stayed leaning against the door letting my entire body defrost itself. I smelled the aroma of freshly cooked pasta and deduced we were having spaghetti for dinner. I tossed my backpack onto the couch and plopped down next to it eventually taking off my jacket. I figured I should stay downstairs until dinner was ready so I picked up the remote off the coffee table and turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. I finally settled on a rerun of Supernatural when I heard the front door open. I looked back and saw my dad walk in and when he noticed me, he smiled and greeted me.

“Hi dad, you’re home early. How was work?” I said back at him. He put his keys into a small box by the coat hanger and said, “I know. They let me off early today because there was nothing going on that needed my attention. How was school?” I smiled and told him about my day until my mom called in from the kitchen to tell us that dinner was ready.

It has been awhile since all four of us had dinner together and the feeling was rather nice. We passed around a plate of garlic bread and engaged in small talk about how everyone’s day went. Mikasa announced that she made the girls’ varsity team for volleyball and was made captain which wasn’t all too surprising but I congratulated her nonetheless. Mom told us of a mishap she had at the supermarket and dad mentioned how he’ll be coming home earlier for a while due to work going slow at the hospital. I, of course, talked about how excited I was about the school trip being in France.

After dinner, I went up to my room and did the rest of my homework when I heard a knock on my door. I gave permission to enter and saw it was Armin. Armin apparently came over to tell me of his crush on Jean which I already had a feeling about.

“I don’t know how this happened but I was just sitting next to him in class and then the minute I smelled his cologne which smelled so good by the way, I just felt so..I don’t know Eren, I just couldn’t stop feeling so nervous and I can’t stop thinking about him. I didn’t even know I – I mean am I? ..Gay?” Spurting out all at once, Armin started frantically playing with his hands and avoiding eye contact with me. While I don’t really know how to respond to this, I mean I can understand his newfound sexual orientation but the fact he likes Jean. Now that is what I don’t know how to respond to.

“Well I don’t really know much about love and shit, but I do know that you probably do like horseface which means that you might be gay and really Armin, there’s nothing to be ashamed about. I’m not going to judge you so calm down will you?” I say to him with a smile of reassurance. After some few minutes of talking to Armin, he finally calms down and goes back to the Armin I know and we both decided that the only action to take is to just let it play out and see what happens. Armin isn’t the type to just outright confess so he says he is fine with just being friends for now and keeping everything a secret until he’s sure of how he’s really feeling and if Jean feels the same way which in my opinion, he doesn’t because well I’m no expert but I can tell when people are interested in one another and I can tell Jean has a thing for Marco.

After Armin left, I took a shower and got ready for bed. All this excitement from today had me pretty tired along with the fact I didn’t get any sleep from the night before that I immediately fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.

\------ 

_Petra_

After Petra’s shift ended and after the talk she had with Eren, she went home and immediately went to her room and sat on her bed. She looked at a picture that was sitting nicely on her small bedside table and smiled. The picture was of her a few years back sitting next to a young black haired man who wasn’t even smiling at the camera. Talking to Eren about Levi earlier today brought back so many memories and she was feeling happy that Eren might meet the guy who was so important to her. Wondering if his number was still the same, Petra took out her phone and scrolled through the contacts until his name appeared. Clicking on his name and then clicking on the call button, she waited as the sound of ringing began. It took a few rings and just before Petra thought of giving up thinking he changed his number, the ever so familiar sound of his voice entered her ears.

“Hello?”


End file.
